3 Body Problem (2024) User Reviews

Hooked me from the start

[Supermanfan-13 · 8/10 · 29 April 2024]

3 Body Problem is here and it did not disappoint. First of all I've never read any of the books so I have nothing to compare it to or be disappointed about. I can just take it for what it is and that's a really good sci-fi series. They've been talking about and hyping this show up for years now. The creators of Game of Thrones (David Benioff and D. B. Weiss) are the creators of this show to show that brings a lot of expectations with it. I'm glad they released it on Netflix so we get all the episodes at one time because I couldn't stop watching. There will be haters out there who live to hate everything but don't let that deter you because this is worth every second.

Do it

[drael64 · 8/10 · 29 April 2024]

The 3 body problem is an absolutely engrossing genre mystery with compelling characters, human drama and even a few laughs.

I binged this entire first season and I can't wait for the next. The premise does stretch the plausibility of the physics, but does not eliminate any suspension of disbelief. The execution of this show is top notch, the production, writing and the acting.

There are themes here that not everyone will agree with, a certain misanthropy underlying the show, but you can easily enjoy the show without feeling like these ideas are being shoved down your throat like many shows these days do.

If you are fan of genre fiction, and you haven't watched this already, you are missing out!

Next season can't come fast enough

[Rob1331 · 8/10 · 23 April 2024]

I've been looking forward to 3 Body Problem for what feels like a decade. I just binged the entire first season in two days and it's everything I hoped it would be and more. This series is adapted from the best selling novels of the same name. It's a show that will pull you into their world and not let go. There are so many mysteries that will keep your mind going the entire time. You can tell they put a lot of money into this show too because the visuals are absolutely beautiful. The only thing that could've been better was character development. I stole this quote from a review I read but I couldn't agree more, "3 Body Problem sets a new standard for what sci-fi is capable of." I'm already looking forward to next season. It can't come fast enough.

The show that made me write my first review

[noahwknudsen · 9/10 · 30 April 2024]

I picked "3-Body Problem" off Netflix thinking it was some British murder mystery for I don't know why reasons, I just didn't watch a trailer and went in blind with no expectations-big mistake, but the best one I could've made. Straight up, I'm giving this show a 9 out of 10. Why? Because it absolutely blew my mind, that's why. Only been out a few weeks and it's already one of the best series I've seen in a long time.

I don't know how after rewatching it, but it exploded my smooth brain when the reveal about the aliens happened. Yeah, not the typical scientific mishap or some international espionage-I was thinking maybe Russians screwing with tech or something. But nope, it's aliens messing with everything, and that hits you halfway through. After that reveal, the show just spirals into chaos. Bruh.

What really got me was how they handled the past scenes set in China. It's super engaging, adding a solid backstory that enriches everything. Plus, the characters are killer, I feel like they were all cast perfectly. They've got this multicultural diversity that actually makes sense and is not just shoved in your face as a political statement. There's this new actress from New Zealand, barely any info on her IMDB page, and she just nails it, chur. And don't get me started on Auggie....... like one of the hottest actresses of all time 100%

All in all, "3-Body Problem" is an addictive watch. The stories tie together brilliantly, keeping you hooked till the end. Big fan.

Who wrote these characters and dialogue?

[alessandrogherardi · 7/10 · 18 April 2024]

The story is decent but whoever wrote the characters and most of the dialogue needs to go

Jin and Auggie are simply unsufferable. Auggie seems unable to go 10 lines without swearing. They always seem on the verge of throwing a tantrum. Like it's literally making it difficult to watch because I feel attacked through the screen. I know this is the idea that some writers have about "strong women" but I don't think it's working. Also why do they react to everything by getting mad lmao aren't they scientists?

Enough has been said about Will's only character traits being that he has cancer and he can't propose to Jin. He's unsufferable

Wade and the detective are so stereotyped that it becomes laughable at times. Sometimes Wade says "cool stuff" that doesn't even make sense

I'm sorry because the story is good but so much revolved around these unsufferable characters, and I suppose it will going forward since we aren't going to see the Aliens for a couple hundred years.

West Good China bad narrative

[rohankrishna · 10/10 · 30 April 2024]

What could have been an excellent show is turned into west good , rest of the world bad kinda show. Obviously, all important characters are given to western main leads, while all the insignificant characters are given to Chinese despite in the original novel, importance is given to different characters.

I wish film makers took political view out of the show and focused as described in the novel. But what else can we expect from these film makers anyway? Also, the setting is moved to London, I suggest people to read the original book. That would be way more interesting. However, at least a good story from china is appreciated.

Great then disappointing, then very disappointing.

[Rob-O-Cop · 6/10 · 29 April 2024]

I liked the contemplative nature of this show, but it quite quickly degraded into silliness, and disappointingly so, cos it started off pretty well.

We need shows like this one promised to be but the clues were there right from the start with the annoying constantly smoking cast. Brought to you by the same people who scuttled 7 years of game of thrones with a half ar$ed 8th series. Interestingly this series was 8 episodes long but the show runners killed the show well before the final episode, so I guess that's progress for them, condensing 8 years of disappointment down into an eight episode arc.

I don't know what to think after finishing this first series. It was tantalising in its premise, but disappointing in its execution.

Good, but not great

[jewellz48 · 7/10 · 24 April 2024]

I went into this completely blind--never read the books or saw the Chinese version, and only knew it was a sci-fi show by the guys from GoT. So I had no expectations. I thought it was good, but something was missing that kept it from being great.

The production was good, but not inspiring. The acting was good, but I never really felt emotionally connected to the characters, although I came close with Jin. It would have been nice to have more background and world building to become more vested in the story and characters.

The plot itself was fine enough, but events seemed to unfold quite quickly without ever showing any effort. A lot happened, but it lacked depth. I thought it was good enough to watch another season, but it didn't really knock my socks off at any point. Good enough, I suppose.

some of the low reviews are bogus

[scjelli · 8/10 · 29 April 2024]

First off, this is a really good piece of TV Sci-Fi. I've read the trilogy, including the first book twice, and I was very satisfied with what they did. Frankly, given the scope of the first book, I'm surprised they were willing to take it on. I agree with the guys who said some of the character changes were detriments, but I just think they did the best they could when you have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.

I'm frantic to encourage people to see the show because, like many of the other people who've read the trilogy, as good as the first book is, the second is even better, maybe even way better. I've been reading sci-fi my whole life and the second book is the only sci-fi book I've ever read that made me change my view on a major topic (and, no, I'm not going to tell you what it is). And the special effects in the second book are even crazier than the first. So, please, please, please, watch the show and get the second season made.

I genuinely think many, if not most, of the reviews at 5 or below are paid for by the Chinese government. There's just no way you can give this show only four stars. As you know, there is a 30-part Chinese version and people are running this down to get eyeballs on the Chinese version. I haven't seen it, suspect it is definitely ok, but can't imagine they equal the special effects in the Netflix version.

So, see this and have your friends see it so we can see the second season!

A poorly written character (Auggie) ruins it for the rest

[hansjochems · 7/10 · 26 March 2024]

First two episodes are confusing but in an good way. Show builds op strong for me. Episode 3, 4 and 5 very strong.

But then, from like episode 5 the focus shifts to the most annoying character i have witnessed in a long time: Auggie.

I dont know if it is a bad actress or a good one and Auggie is ment to be this annoying but is a very hard watch.

At some point you just want to skip every scene she is in. I have still one episode left and my god i hope the character is written off.

So now I have 98 words left to typ but i just wanded to express my hate for this character nothing more. Finished.

Great! Much better than the Chinese version!

[skyescape-564-683302 · 9/10 · 27 April 2024]

I watched both versions of the series. Netflix did it much better! Much better acting and production... As for the Chinese version, the acting is very poor, the dialogues as well, the insertion of some pointlessly bad special effects made it even worse, halfway through the series I wanted to give up watching... Although, I think that the big problem of Chinese cinematography is censorship, my assumption is that the director and the actresses are not able to express their full potential because the problem is with the strong restrictions imposed by the state, it is simply a tragedy, both for art and for people in general. The paradox is that the Chinese actresses acted better in the British version than in the Chinese version...

Not good, boring and badly written

[rodlfal · 16 April 2024]

I just can't understand how this show got such an high score, I can tell you right away that it doesn't deserve it at all.

This is from someone who hasn't read the books yet so I am reviewing it as a tv show only, and not how well it adapts the books.

I love the base idea, it touches science, religion, the basics of human nature, it has so many opportunities for a great show... BUT.. jesus, this was so badly executed, it really shows how good those two GoT "creators" are, I have a feeling that with these books they either didn't have all of the world background and details to use or they just completely ignored them, while with GoT they had most of the work done for them.

This series to me is very similar to Manifest (which was another awful show), the camera work, the cgi, the characters act almost the same way.

Talking about the characters none of these make any sense, none of these are believable in any way, the cast was completely wrong apart from Liam Cunningham but even his role seems so badly written that it is painful to watch.

The scientist characters seem to be acting for a soap opera, we have so many great examples of great scientists in the world, great communicators and rational, why not just take ideas from them... none of the ones in the show make any sense, they all look like models trying to pass for scientists, and for some reason they are the only ones in the world that can solve all the problems, they are boring, over dramatic and most aren't even interested in the problem... We are talking about communicating with aliens, we are talking about humanity demise and they just act it like it is Covid or whatever...

Now, characters are definitely the worse, but not the only bed thing, some ideas and events in the show just make no sense at all, not because they are complex ideas but because they are so dumb, let me list a couple:

• aliens are in a way already on earth and can literally see and do anything.. which begs the question why don't they just destroy everything already
• scientists and their work was already being killed before aliens even learn about humans being liars, but they use that scene as the big shift in human alien relations
• the old chinese lady gets a message from the aliens when the first contact happens that warns her about what would really happen if she responds, she still responds... Later on she acts all surprised when aliens turn against us,... You really can't make this up !

• the only way to stop a boat passing a canal is by cutting it into pieces with some amazing new material the model scientist created all by herself ... This is so painful to even write..
• the world is doomed and the only people working to save humanity are a couple of british scientists in an old mansion
• that tatiana character has superpowers? What the hell? Is that given by the aliens somehow but never explained?

There are much more things that make no sense in this show, literally Manifest, the divine consciousness is the San-ti, OMG !!

Mediocre Body Problem

[kylesykrebs · 6/10 · 22 April 2024]

At the time of this writing the show has a 7.9 rating. I suspect in time this will go down to around 7.2 although personally I think it deserves a 6.

Too harsh? I don't think so. While I didn't hate the show and am not one of those people who need or expect all adaptations to adhere strictly to the source material I think if you are going to make changes in your adaptation they should make sense and make some sort of improvement. This show failed on both scores. The original books by author Cixin Liu were hard sci-fi and brilliant in scope and imagination. The adaptation dumbs down the source material for TV and makes changes to appease the political viewers. None of this is an improvement. All it achieves is it takes everything that made the books so different from everything else out there and turns it into the same kind of Hollywood tripe that's a dime a dozen these days.

Entertaining, intriguing, and beautifully made

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 22 April 2024]

Decades after a bitter young Chinese researcher hits the 'call button' on a massive interstellar transmitter, inexplicable data appears in our most sophisticated research facilities that implies that our understanding of physics is fatally-flawed, virtual-reality devices that are far beyond our technical abilities appear, and brilliant young scientists start killing themselves. I found the inaugural eight episodes of the series to be compelling viewing, with competent cast playing interesting (if not overly complex) characters, excellent special effects, and an intriguing story-line (note: I have yet to read the book(s) or watched the Chinese version of the story). The only real problem I have is with the near omniscience and omnipotence of the existential threat that is driving the plot - hopefully the writers won't 'paint themselves into a corner' and end up with a story full of 'but why...?' moments. I am definitely looking forward to season two.

Superficial popcorn SF

[rickfoj · 6/10 · 23 March 2024]

After watching all episodes of the first season all hope that some have voiced after being disappointed with the first one or two episodes are misplaced: the sequences with the young Ye Wenjie are actually one of the best parts of the series: the dark atmosphere and the intensity of the acting of Zine Tseng were a perfect fit. The contemporary crime story around the string of suicides of high profile scientists was a good continuation, not the least because it was carried by two good actors, Liam Cunningham and Benedict Wong. Wong got some more depth and complexity, because he is shown in his interactions with his son, but at the same time these parts don't seem to contribute anything to the main story. Cunningham has to play an important, but very one-dimensional character. But the whole subplot is soon finished and for the viewer the small amount of suspense contained here, is killed by showing us the solution early on. The characters are later reused in a very unconvincing and silly way, basically it seems England has only one leader figure and one police man.

The contemporary story line around the group of young geniuses in England which takes up most of the screen time dropped the ball on many levels. The actors are quite uneven in their performance, but even more striking is that some of them are a good fit for their role, while others are painfully unconvincing casting decisions. Eiza González as Auggie Salazar is supposed to be a technical genius, a nerd, but she completely fails to project any cool intelligence. So in those scenes where she has to show emotions or where she is just part of a group of (totally not nerdy) friends, she is convincing, but really fails in making us believe she is an academic and scientists (her impressive beauty is probably more of an obstacle than a plus in this context). Jess Hong as Jin Cheng is much better in doing exactly that. She handles the different aspects of her character and the development of the character very well. Again, the writers are quite clumsy: Though we follow Cheng all the time with her friends, where she is a very normal, emotional and non-academic person, they add a scene with her fiance Raj and his family, where she is suddenly nerdy and socially awkward.

Her love story with Alex Sharp as Will Downing is well done from both sides, and Sharp plays the melancholy, self-depracating dying man quite well too. Jovan Adepo as Saul Durand is rather pale and unmemorable. This is not helped by the fact that he is supposed to be especially intelligent, but is quite often rather slow in the uptake.

The writing is painfully mediocre. The story centers on some great ideas, but the writers didn't trust the audience to find them interesting enough to tag along, so they filled the screen time up with uninteresting love stories and a lot of moral discussions which don't lead to anything but some self-righteous noise. They don't care about the main plot points at all, probably because they were a given: Why is the distortion of research in physics such a problem? What are the results of the public knowledge of the existence of aliens and of their coming?

As we all know, the series is based on one of the best Science Fiction publications of the 21st Century. The novels tell a very wide-ranging story in a scientifically sound manner and always amaze the reader by taking a very broad view. Scientific considerations play just as much a role as sociological ones. All of this is mind-expanding in the best sense of the word. So much intellectuality is of course unacceptable for a television series. But the fact that the authors of the series then cut out so much that the most important plot points are almost incomprehensible, but instead a sweet mash of romance and morality is stirred in, is unnecessary and cannot be excused by the requirements of a television series.

All in all this series tells a story, mainly about a group of very beautiful young people and how complicated their love life is. There are also some aliens in it and some incomprehensible stuff about physics, but it is not a lot, so don't worry.

Spoiled by Hollywood style casting

[bas_brush · 6/10 · 27 March 2024]

A series with lots of strengths a solid performances. Sticks reasonably close to the source material, not too significantly dumbed diwn. It is however utterly let down by some simply shocking casting choices. Most damagingly, Eiza González does not appear in a scene without acting as tho in a photoshoot for a fashion magazine cover. In every shot, even ones where she is portrayed as just waking up after a night binge drinking, she has supermodel, 2 hours worth of make up. The other characters continually comment "you are beautiful" to her, and she strikes another pose.

This shatters any willing suspicion of disbelief and spoils what otherwise would have been a decent series.

Watch the Chinese version instead. Sorry.

Mostly faithful but rushed

[isabellacheng · 8/10 · 23 March 2024]

This adaptation is largely faithful to the book, if your definition of faithful is "major events that happened in the books also happened in this show". The whole thing is rushed, and there is no time to let the events sink in. The first episode already covers half the first book. The mystery of what's behind the scientists' deaths and the thrill of the main characters uncovering the culprit are missing entirely from the show. The divide between the two branches of the three body organization is completely omitted. And where are the pendulums? The hard science that makes the source material so appealing is also "less hard" here. Two episodes in, we've already arrived at the famous "Do Not Answer" scene and know it's aliens. Despite having only 8 episodes, episodes 6 and 7 are nonsense fillers and by episode 8 we're already at book 2.

I don't mind the screenwriters adapting characters to a more international audience, splitting and combining some main characters so they can interact with each other because you can't really have an inner monologue like in a fiction. But it makes zero sense that "everybody knows everybody" or that some early- to mid-thirties are heads of research centers. The epic feeling is gone because the show is made too UK-centric. Different genders and ethnic groups are "represented", but somehow they all have a British (Oxford) upbringing. Major world powers including the US, Japan, continental Europe, and Chinese-Chinese (not British Chinese) are not represented at all. This work is supposed to be an epic that spans the globe, and spans centuries. Yet watching the "Oxford Five"'s relationship issues, it feels like teenage drama instead.

While I might sound negative, this work is miles ahead of whatever's crapping out of Disney/Marvel/SW these days. The CGI is fantastic, especially when it comes to visualizing the VR world. The C******* Revolution backstory is meticulously filmed, and the entire Chinese storyline, however short it is, is spoken in Chinese. I am delighted to see Chinese Sci-Fi being adapted for Western audience, hence +1 star for representation. Nonetheless, as with most shows these days though, please hire more competent writers.

Not a bad series...

[podein · 7/10 · 23 April 2024]

It's not a bad series with some interesting writing and casting. But, also some very boring writing and ridiculous casting.

Liam Cunningham is great! Benedict Wong is absolutely fantastic! And, Jess Hong is also pretty good in her role.

However, Eiza González is an absolutely terrible actress. Constant scenes with her poor, ridiculously forced acting of her crying or moping with her buck teeth hanging out, lips gaping open waiting for the insects to fly into her mouth. She so poor that it's just shameful casting with how good Cunningham and Wong are. Just a terrible casting for one of the meaningful, important characters in the storyline.

Dark series between the story and rising again

[shadeeomareenn · 9/10 · 3 May 2024]

The writers, directors, and all the crew, frankly, created an outstanding work in everything, the story, the characters, and the changing events between the past and the present, and we do not forget the actors who actually gave a distinguished and strong performance, but the problem is that it is possible to predict what will happen later, even if the series extends for a number of more seasons. We will see what we expect to happen at a rate of 75%. Why is it because the series is so close to Dark that the viewer may say that he revived Dark for greatness, and this, in my opinion, will attract a larger audience, but as I said, if he watches Dark, you can guess what will happen later in the three body problem.

Real sci fi

[mchristi-156-169140 · 9/10 · 24 April 2024]

It's nice to see a real sci fi show about science and "what if," not just an adventure or horror movie with sci fi veneer. The plot had some real unexpected turns and original story elements. I also learned some history and science along the way.

Some quibbles:

It seemed illogical that in the later episodes the aliens just stopped blocking new tech, and that they didn't go after the people opposing them more.

I felt episode 7 dragged a bit.

I was disappointed the story it wasn't wrapped up in one season, but I don't know the books.

I also have to take one point off for unnecessary R rated stuff - you can tell a story without showing awful things in detail of tons of f-words.

But overall I enjoyed it, even if I had to use Vidangel with some additional fast forwarding over a couple slow parts or horrible parts.

Decent show, but not amazing

[Valkonian · 7/10 · 3 May 2024]

As one reviewer put it well - "Good but not great" I'm sure the book series is amazing, I never read it so I am basing the show solely on the viewpoint of someone coming at it from never reading the books.

Some areas feel rushed, as if they needed to push some narratives to get things moving. Not sure why because this type of show I think needed to be developed.

I absolutely can't stand Auggie's character. Her character is the epitome of today's generation. Selfish, instant gratification, doesn't care about the future, not forward thinking at all, doesn't care about the big picture, etc. She literally brings the quality of the show down.

Some things don't make sense though. If the Sophon's are so omnipresent I don't understand how humanity is allowed to do things. But, it's something I can look aside at for the show's sake.

One thing I will say after watching season one - If by the end of season 2 it's shown humanity keeps losing the small "battles" I won't watch anymore. I'm sick of watching shows where the bad guys are always winning. That seems to be the trend these days. Sorry, I see enough bad stuff in reality. I turn to shows for non-reality, fantasy, good stuff feelings.

No Body Problem..... neeed more!!

[mbaltzelle · 10/10 · 25 April 2024]

The only issue I have with "3 Body Problem" is that now I have a "no body problem". This show is absolutely amazing from beginning to end. Despite what some people are saying about having too many protagonists, I feel that only adds to the depth of the show. This a show about humanity afterall, and last time I checked, humanity comprised of more than 1 individual. Weiss, Benioff, Woo and company work their magic and make us fall in love with the protagonists and every one of the actors absolutely kills it. Amazing cinematography, phenomenal acting, and great story telling. I just want more now!! I dont want to wait....thus the "no body problem" I currently find myself in.

Bravo friends. Bravo.

Patchy

[aaiqtrg · 7/10 · 13 April 2024]

This show goes seriously downhill after they all stop playing the weird video game, and worst of all, they kill off the best character halfway through the series.

Benedict Wong is incredible in it and the first few episodes are brilliant and seriously compelling, but it all goes very wrong around the episode 5 mark. Somehow the threat of alien invasion sends the show into the territory of tedium. I agree with others about the serious miscasting of many of the scientist characters- the Auggie and Saul characters in particular don't seem to quite have the gravitas to pull it off, and as the show rests quite heavily on their shoulders, their miscasting really is quite a drawback.

good show, flawed adaptation

[PetiteCes · 7/10 · 21 March 2024]

Something is just off. For the readers of the original novel, you know how carefully Cixin Liu planted every detail, slowly guided you into that plot trap, and boom, a crazy idea with a magnificent scene showed up and blew you away. That is not something to be found here in this show, it's all because of the pacing, everything is raging forward, and the big ideas just flows out like the rest of the story, nothing special, nothing epic. I cannot speak for those who have never read the book before, but I doubt people can really catch the essence of those big ideas. It has nothing to do with casting, recreating or anything, I'm not criticizing those.

And if you find the characters in the original book are flat enough, somehow David & Dan find a way to make characters in this show even more flat, more flat than those dehydrated Trisolarans. By the way they call them Santi now which is probably the only thing loyal to the original novel. That is the price of building 5 (or 4, or more than 5, who cares) protagonists at the same time in a show less than 9 hours. The good thing is the way they rearranged the story line did left plenty of space for the protagonists to grow in future seasons. Let's just hope the crew use this to their advantage in the next few seasons.

Everything else is just a typical Netflix show, industry standard production, industry standard cinema, industry standard everything. For that it deserves a solid 7/10. It's a good show, and if you are not familiar with the original you might find some parts quite intriguing, first few episodes might be bit slow if you don't have any idea where the plot is heading but get better after ep3. It is what it is, it's a TV show detouring from the book and ,at least the first season, isn't your typical epic Sci-fi. It tries to please everyone but hardly satisfies anyone. Hope to see how things develop next season.

3 Body Problem v. Three-Body

[lfrenchman-01019 · 8/10 · 9 April 2024]

So thought-provoking. This was very good, but it's a perfect example of something that should have drawn more from the original script. Too many significant changes, in my opinion. And, the game should have appeared more as a game. The characters being exactly themselves, just in different clothes, didn't really convey the understanding of what it was like in there. And they didn't spend nearly enough time in the game or with the countdown or with Ye Wenjie's background, or pretty much anything. They would have done better with 10 or 12 episodes and let us more enjoy and savor each stage. The original Three-Body is long (30 episodes) and in Chinese, but this version is missing so much detail I now realize was important to the overall story. Watch this and enjoy it, but try to find the time to watch the original.